There have been long standing problems in providing durable, waterproof, sterilized wall surfaces in many environments. In barns to house animals it is important to provide wall surfaces that may be washed down with strong disinfectants and which will stand up to destructive animals such as pigs. For swimming pools, campground washrooms and shower stalls and domestic bathrooms, car wash premises, etc., a main problem has been water vapour penetration of wall coverings to damage supporting wood frames. A secondary problem has been the difficulty in providing any partial solution to the first problem while presenting any type of reasonable aesthetic appearance.
Many efforts have been made to overcome these problems.
In animal barns, it is common place to provide a lower wall margin of concrete or metal cladding to guard against the destructive effects of the animals. Sometimes these lower parts of the walls are merely covered with painted plywood. Indeed, the upper parts may also be clad with plywood. Whatever the quality of the paint, such painted plywood is not wholly durable and detached paint chips may be a toxic hazard. Moreover, water penetration to the wood frame is frequent.
In public washrooms and domestic bathrooms ceramic tiles are frequently used to provide a waterproof surface but these are subject to grout mildew and breakage. Some public washrooms have painted brick walls, which, while not proof against vandalism, appear to be the best currently available. There is a very great need to provide an aesthetic, inexpensive cladding for public facilities, which, if not vandal proof, is at least easy to repair.
In commercial environments such as carwashes and other industrial premises, the walls may be clad with metal sheet or may simply be painted brick or concrete. None of these solutions are inexpensive or wholly satisfactory. Moreover, none of them provide any significant degree of heat insulation.
In commercial vehicles such as cargo vans or cargo airplanes, the insides of the cargo bays of such vehicles may be clad with plywood or specially formed plastic coverings. However, plywood is difficult to adapt to the irregularly shaped surfaces of the cargo bay, and specially formed plastic coverings are relatively expensive.
In some environments, specialty paints have been used for waterproofing but these always require a substrate such as drywall or plywood.
To replace wall board, plywood or rigid metal cladding, it would be desirable to provide a plastic coating over the whole wall surface of walls to be subjected to frequent pressure spraying or humidity. Difficulties concerning the durability of any such cladding and a watertight method of attachment have seemed insurmountable. Also, it has been conventional thinking that air access to the wood frame us important.
In fact, such air access to the wood frame is not very important if a truly waterproof surface to guard against ingress of water vapour or water spray is provided. In any event, air access to the frame may be provided from the exterior of the frame.